CHAMPAIGN, IL – Recently obtained federal reports reveal major violations of
the Animal Welfare Act within the labs of the University of Illinois
Urbana/Champaign, according to the national research watchdog group SAEN.

During 2009 University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign received 3 federal
citations from the United States Department of Agriculture for violating the
Animal Welfare Act. The violations involved issues of inadequate supervision of
animal experimentation by the UI Institutional Animal Care & Use
Committee and inadequate housing for animals.

A July 31, 2009 inspection report cites UI for an incident in which an animal
was killed when a chemical solution was accidentally placed into the lungs,
causing death. Another animal fell victim to the same fate, but was
resuscitated.

The same inspection report cites UI for another incident in which animals
experienced “a sudden severe illness.” The principal investigator neglected to
report this incident for a year, and claimed that the medical records for the
affected animals had been “lost”.

“Negligence at UI killed one animal and endangered others,” said Michael A.
Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN. “This facility should face serious
consequences for the death of this animal, but the USDA is literally allowing
them to get away with murder,” he said.

“It is clear that the UI officials who are responsible for supervising animal
research are not doing their jobs,” said Budkie. “What else is going on at UI
that we don’t know about? How many more researchers conveniently lost
potentially incriminating records?”

According to SAEN the UI incidents are the latest part of a national pattern
of negligent animal deaths in laboratories. UI is the 29th lab to become
enmeshed in the negligence scandal which has taken the lives of over 100 animals
within the last 1 ½ years.